Central Park Band Concert

Event Information

Venue(s):
Central Park Mall

Conductor(s):
Harvey Bradley Dodworth

Event Type:
Band

Record Information

Status:
Published

Last Updated:
20 February 2020

Performance Date(s) and Time(s)

17 Jun 1865, 4:00 PM

Program Details

The concert was performed in three parts.

Same program as for the second concert, 10 June.

Performers and/or Works Performed

2)
aka Park march, The; Central Park; Central Park music; Salutory park march; Salutary park march; Concert-Signal March; Proem; Attention; Introductory march
Composer(s): Dodworth
3)
aka Gott und die Bajadere, Der; Dieu et la bayadere
Composer(s): Auber
4)
Composer(s): Hall
Text Author: Linley
5)
Composer(s): Späth
7)
aka Grand Potpourri
Composer(s): Gounod
8)
Composer(s): Kochkeller
9)
aka Freischutz overture
Composer(s): Weber
10)
Composer(s): Bilse
12)
aka Letzte Rose
Composer(s): Traditional
Text Author: Moore
13)
aka Violetta
Composer(s): Faust
14)
Composer(s): Kreutzer
15)
Composer(s): Heller
16)
aka Union: north, south, east, and west
Composer(s): Dodworth

Citations

1)
Announcement: New-York Times, 17 June 1865, 8.

     Includes program.

2)
Review: New York Herald, 18 June 1865, 5.

     “THE PARK. The Music Yesterday and the Visitors--A Big Crowd and a Slight Sensation.

     The Park was crowded yesterday. We beg the reader not to take this observation too literally; The able bodied population of England, Scotland and Ireland might almost find standing room within its spacious area without encroaching upon the domain of the swans and little fishes. It was not in this extended sense that our great pleasure grounds were crowded. Such a concourse would probably disturb the nerves even of Comptroller Green and his excellent aid-de-camp.  The Park was crowded nevertheless. On Saturday afternoon seven hundred acres, for all practicable purposes, are condensed into seven. Every one who goes there goes to hear the music, and to do so must place himself either on the Mall, on the Terrace or on the greenward roundabout. Hence when thirty or forty thousand persons come together for this one object, as they did yesterday, the sensation of crowding may be realized without any vert strong effort of imagination. We should like to use a simile were it not for an inner conviction that its inappropriateness would counterbalance its application to the case in point.Sam Weller, when he compared Mr. Pickwick to an angel, was troubled by the recollection that in all his experience he had never heard of an angel attired in breeches, black gaiters and spectacles. In like manner, we do not remember to have read of locusts manifesting themselves in hoop skirts, fairy like muslins and waterfalls. Otherwise we might have likened the brilliantly dressed visitors who thronged the Mall and the Terrace yesterday--settling wherever the welcome word 'common' gave access to the plastic turf, and covering every patch of green with the hues of the rainbow--to a flight of locusts. As we have said, however, there are entomological difficulties in the way, and we drop this point.

     Nothing that could give éclat to the gathering was wanting. The weather was truly superb, and ample shelter fromthe burning rays of the sun was to be found under the trees and beneath a number of additional awnings which had been put up for the occasion. The heat, however, still made itself felt, and Messrs. Stetson & Radford's saloon was all tooo small for those who sought its refreshing shelter. When Spaetti’s [sic] fantasia on Scotch and Irish airs, and Bilse’s Humoristen Polka were being played, there was but one inclination among the listeners.  The children, ever true to nature, seized it, and setting at naught the frigid rules of etiquette and the regulations of the Park Commissioner, they did what many of their elders longed to do—they danced to the music, and Spurgeon or the sourest puritan could hardly have reproved them. The piquant ViolettaMazourka, from Faust, was redemanded with an energy thayt allowed no refusal. The cornet aria, '''Tis the Last Rose of Summer,' and Mr. Dodworth's arrangement of 'Ever of Thee' were also greeted with the applause which in popular resorts always waits upon the popular tunes well played.

[paragraph on accident that occurred during the concert when a runaway horse carriage driver lost control of his horses]

     When the music had concluded the other attractions of the park came in for their share of attention. Time and careful treatment have so far improved the cricket ground that no club that ever 'trundled the leather' need be ashamed to own it. On Saturday afternoon the St. George's Club practice on the grounds, with the Free Academy pupils as honorary members. On other days it is contemplated to give the use of the ground to other cricketing organizations.

     The statuary room has been completed and thrown open to the public. Two excellent busts, of the Prince of Wales and the other of Archbishop McClosky, by Mr. C. Innes, have been added to the collection. In the grounds near the Casino there is a group of statuary by Mr. Robert Thompson, representing with life-like fidelity the well known lines of Burns:--”

And here's a hand, my trusty fiere,

And gi'es a hand o' thine,

And we'll tak a right good williewaught,

For auld lang syne!

     Among the many hundreds who stop to admire this work there are probably few who know that Mr. Thompson has not yet been paid for his labor. A subscription committee has been formed for the purpose of handling to the sculptor his well earned reward. It should be mentioned that the onus of this delay does not rest upon the Commissioners, as the statue was presented to the Park."